A Good Day
by LexieBird
Summary: The Doctor's been having a rough time since he lost Rose. Wibbly-wobbly, and he gets another chance to say what he wants to. Bit of fluffyness, set just before Smith and Jones.


The Doctor has good days, and bad days. He always has. But before, bad days consisted of bad events, like mud and death and blood and tears and fear. And the good days - well, they were just every day that wasn't a bad one. Even the bad ones weren't bad, because afterwards, the Doctor and Rose would stumble back to the TARDIS and curl up together on the couch, silently comforting one another.

Now, the good days were few and far between, and the bad days were just every other day.

He had things to do. There was a hospital he'd been meaning to check it out for a few days now, but every time he tried, it had hurt too bad. _Look at me, wallowing around in self-pity,_ he'd thought, ashamed of himself.

But today was shaping up to be a good day. No nightmare in his sleep. No glimpse of something Rose left behind. No repressed memory of a former companion or a loved one, no burning Gallifrey haunting his thoughts. It wasn't just Rose that haunted him, but while she was there he could forget, for a little while.

Now, everything just seemed so much worse.

Until he heard something fiddling with the TARDIS lock. He turned, confused, glad there was going to be a distraction before the day could turn bad. The door swung open, and the Doctor gasped, shocked - there were only two people who he'd given a key to in the whole universe.

And there she was, in the doorway, as normal, as she should be. The Doctor's mouth hung open. And then she was talking, as if nothing had ever happened.

"Doctor! Look, I found this really cute little dress, and I saw that you'd moved the TARDIS here and I thought I'd show you, see? The colour reminds me of that planet you took me to- what was the name? Lomo- Lomote- Lomotem…" She trailed off as she realised the Doctor wasn't speaking - by now he should've cut in with a frustrated sigh about how the planet was Lombotemash, and it wasn't Lombotemash that had that purple sky anyway, that was Carlos.

She looked up from the dress she was holding, and looked at the Doctor properly. He looked so shocked, and so _broken_, and Rose knew that this was not _her _Doctor - it was, but it wasn't from her time. She was gone.

She immediately moved up to him, dropping the dress, grabbing him and wordlessly pulling him into a huge hug. He didn't respond for a few seconds, before he gave in and hugged her, hugged her tight, so tight that Rose gasped quietly. The hug went on for so long, the Doctor not relenting, holding her head against his chest.

"It's okay. I'm here now, right?" She said shakily.

"Rose," he muttered into her hair.

They pulled back from the hug, and both stared at each other in the face. The Doctor was trying to convince himself that it was Rose in front of him, and it wasn't hard; a quick glance at her timeline told him that this was a Rose from his past. Rose was trying to see if he was okay, and it wasn't long before she came to the conclusion that he wasn't.

The Doctor closed his eyes.

"Rose," he said again, then leant down and kissed her, just because he could. Because he could, and he wanted to, and he hadn't before, and it didn't matter now; she was his past.

Rose didn't respond to the kiss, but the Doctor didn't care. Something had snapped - something small, but it had still snapped.

Then, Rose sighed. It wasn't a fed up sigh, or a sad sigh, but it was a sigh of pleasure or relief or defeat, and her mouth began to move against his. The Doctor felt the timelines buckle and loop and shake and reshuffle before settling down again, and suddenly the lips on his were wonderfully familiar. He nibbled her lower lip in the exact spot he now knew would make her moan, and wasn't disappointed.

They pulled apart, both breathing heavily, foreheads pressed together, eyes closed. The Doctor's hands moved to Rose's shoulders, holding her there firmly.

"Rose? I need you to know." He said. "I need you to know. I love you." He whispered. "And I never said. I was so scared, and I never said. Have for a long time. Your Doctor - the one you're with right now, me - he loves you. Always, always, always will." He breathed in deep. "Don't tell me about this." He kissed her forehead gently. "Can't tell me. Paradox." He breathed in deeply again, as if trying to memorise her scent. "You should go. I'll be wondering where you are."

"No, you won't." Rose breathed. "I'm shopping. You don't expect me back for another couple of hours."

"Then surprise me." He remembered exactly when she'd come back; earlier than he'd expected, but not as early as if she left now. They were new memories, he had two sets now; the first, original ones, and these new, infinitely better ones. He still lost her, but the in between bits were so much better.

Because after this, she'd go back to her own, correct-timeline Doctor and snog the life out of him.

And he'd snog her back.

"Do we do this? Does this happen again?" Rose asked, hopefully.

"Up to you." He said truthfully. "There are two ways the timelines can go from here, and I've currently got memories of both versions."

"And which version do you prefer?"

"The version where when you go back, you snog the life out of me against the TARDIS console." He breathed.

"And you don't freak out?" Rose asked.

"I'm a little surprised," he admitted with a chuckle, "but I definitely don't complain." That answer made Rose smile, and she made up her mind then and there. The Doctor felt the new timeline solidify further.

"Do you want me to stay, for a bit?" Rose asked, stepping back slightly as her hand found his. "Just, you know, catch up or something."

"About what?" He laughed. "I know exactly what you've been doing, and what you're going to do."

"You?" She asked cheekily, giving him a small kiss.

"If you're lucky." He didn't know yet, he hadn't looked at all these new memories. He'd wait until she left, then experience them all in order. "But you should go." He added reluctantly, feeling the time tick-tick-ticking past. She nodded sadly.

"Hey," she said as she left, "just wanted you to know - I love you too."

"I know." He whispered. "You told me. But- but I don't say it back. Remember that I do, okay? That I wanted to say it, oh, so bad. But my mouth didn't do what I wanted it to, and-"

"S'okay," she said, "Thanks. Did I ever say that? Thanks for taking me with you. Wouldn't trade it for the world."

"Which one?" He responded cheekily. It was amazing, that he'd gone back to being happy, and she'd only been here for twenty minutes. Would it have been the same, with a different companion?

He knew the answer was yes. Part of him didn't want it to be.

"All of them. Every single one." She paused, looking at him thoughtfully.

"Keep going, will you? Find someone else, or at least _do_ something. Universe still needs you." She said. The Doctor nodded in response, but Rose narrowed her eyes.

"Promise?" She requested.

"I promise."

Yes, today was definitely shaping up to be a good day.


End file.
